“I will enlarge no more on the evidence, but submit it to you, gentlemen—Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence: nor is the law less stable than the fact. If an assault was made to endanger their lives, the law is clear, they had right to kill in their own defense.’’
— Founding Father John Adams (1735-1826) was asked to help provide a legal defense for the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre, the confrontation on March 5, 1770, in which a group of nine British soldiers killed five people in a crowd of 300-400 who were harassing them verbally and throwing various projectiles.
He bravely agreed to defend the soldiers do so despite public anger. Above is his most famous quote from the trial.
